/A calm, pleasant observation and comment/
I can't complain about ebay. I've done probably 10,000 transactions on ebay and the bad experiences have been VERY far and few in between. Yeah, been skwoed once or twice but overall as good as if I had a retail store or better.
That said, the way they have it set up is not exactly as consumer friendly as it could be.
And I think it only serves to tarnish ebay rather than promote it.
A couple things.....
1). Allowing sellers to have "Private" listings.
This means that a scumbag seller can hide his listings so when you read a negative review, unless the buyer used up some of his feedback space to identify the item, you have no clue what people are saying was garbage.
WTFeck? How does this help the buyer?
2). Unlike Amazon, no item by item comment section
Amazon allows it's customers to comment on each item. This allows the next potential buyer to read all the comments left by previous buyers to make a smarter purchase decision. Obviously crappy sellers peddling defective products won't like it, but overall, wouldn't it be better for everyone in the final analysis? Ebay allows about 120 charachters of "feedback". Not nearly enough info in my opinion. With ebay's system it means TONS of items going back. I would take a WAG and guess that UPS and the USPS make millions (PER DAY) shipping garbage back sold on ebay.
Wouldn't more disclosure and more information for the consumer make sense....for everyone?
(except maybe the USPS and UPS that is.
Granted, there are a lot of scumbag buyers out there as well. It goes with dealing with the public.
Sellers learn ways to protect themselves.
If you buy on ebay may I make a few suggestions?
Don't be so quick to leave feedback. A lot of people leave happy feedback the moment an item arrives only to find out later it doesn't work. Guess what? You have FAR more leverage if you hold the feedback card. You have up to like 60 days...so slow down and wait on leaving feedback. it might save you.
Another suggestion....
"Try" to avoid sellers who make their listings PRIVATE. There's a reason they do that and it's not in your best interest. I know you can't always, but try.
ebay is also facing increasing competition. Banggood for example and Alibaba are making headway into ebays traditional selling turf. Amazon was probably the biggest sales swiper ebay ever faced.
Amazon rocks on refunding a buyer your money. They have a refund the buyer now, ask questions later kind of policy. With ebay, it often takes a bit of a dance.
When dealing with the Chinese, I don't have a verdict on that yet. But they have a different mindset than we are used to. I've found many Chinese sellers will do you a number if they can get away with it. You really have to watch them and pay attention to detail.
I can't complain about ebay. I've done probably 10,000 transactions on ebay and the bad experiences have been VERY far and few in between. Yeah, been skwoed once or twice but overall as good as if I had a retail store or better.
That said, the way they have it set up is not exactly as consumer friendly as it could be.
And I think it only serves to tarnish ebay rather than promote it.
A couple things.....
1). Allowing sellers to have "Private" listings.
This means that a scumbag seller can hide his listings so when you read a negative review, unless the buyer used up some of his feedback space to identify the item, you have no clue what people are saying was garbage.
WTFeck? How does this help the buyer?
2). Unlike Amazon, no item by item comment section
Amazon allows it's customers to comment on each item. This allows the next potential buyer to read all the comments left by previous buyers to make a smarter purchase decision. Obviously crappy sellers peddling defective products won't like it, but overall, wouldn't it be better for everyone in the final analysis? Ebay allows about 120 charachters of "feedback". Not nearly enough info in my opinion. With ebay's system it means TONS of items going back. I would take a WAG and guess that UPS and the USPS make millions (PER DAY) shipping garbage back sold on ebay.
Wouldn't more disclosure and more information for the consumer make sense....for everyone?
(except maybe the USPS and UPS that is.
Granted, there are a lot of scumbag buyers out there as well. It goes with dealing with the public.
Sellers learn ways to protect themselves.
If you buy on ebay may I make a few suggestions?
Don't be so quick to leave feedback. A lot of people leave happy feedback the moment an item arrives only to find out later it doesn't work. Guess what? You have FAR more leverage if you hold the feedback card. You have up to like 60 days...so slow down and wait on leaving feedback. it might save you.
Another suggestion....
"Try" to avoid sellers who make their listings PRIVATE. There's a reason they do that and it's not in your best interest. I know you can't always, but try.
ebay is also facing increasing competition. Banggood for example and Alibaba are making headway into ebays traditional selling turf. Amazon was probably the biggest sales swiper ebay ever faced.
Amazon rocks on refunding a buyer your money. They have a refund the buyer now, ask questions later kind of policy. With ebay, it often takes a bit of a dance.
When dealing with the Chinese, I don't have a verdict on that yet. But they have a different mindset than we are used to. I've found many Chinese sellers will do you a number if they can get away with it. You really have to watch them and pay attention to detail.
Last edited:
